Professor Melanie Berkmen

Melanie Barker Berkmen first became involved in Professor Graham Walker’s original HHMI Education Group in 2002 while she was a Jane Coffin Child post-doctoral fellow in Professor Alan Grossman’s lab in the MIT Department of Biology. In 2007, Dr. Berkmen became an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Suffolk University where she teaches biochemistry and chemistry and mentors undergraduate research. Her research focuses on investigating the function and localization of a putative ATPase component of the Bacillus subtilis mating machinery. Over the past five years at Suffolk, Prof. Berkmen has designed and implemented a new biochemistry laboratory curriculum centered on the ConE ATPase. In the first semester, students learn basic biochemical techniques, through purifying and characterizing ConE. In the second semester, students design and conduct novel research on ConE as well as investigate their own interests in biochemistry both on- and off-campus. Over the two semesters, students gain insight into how scientific knowledge is gathered and experience firsthand the pleasure and challenges of scientific discovery.